Review Article Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies https://so02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hasss ISSN (Online): 2630-0079 THE COMMODIFICATION OF IDOL CULTURE WITH A LOOT-BOXES- STYLE MARKETING STRATEGY PRACTICE IN THAI IDOL CULTURE AND ASPECTS OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY TOWARD UNCERTAINTIES Pattarachat Maneechaeye Thai Aviation Services Limited Company, Thailand ABSTRACT Corresponding author: This review article grounds itself in the advent of idol business in Thailand. Pattarachat Maneechaeye The business has originated in Japan and has business practices that differ from [email protected] legacy entertainment business such as paid handshake, photoshoot and live streaming. The objective was to scrutinize the advent of idol business in Thailand Received: 30 March 2020 Revised: 13 May 2020 and data collection was based upon systematic review of related literature. The Accepted: 21 May 2020 review shows that intangible features of each idols can be transformed into a Published: 31 May 2021 pragmatic business commodity through the process of culture commodification from various theory. Apart from services mentioned above, this business also has Citation: a unique way to sell their collectible goods which are sold in the randomized Maneechaeye, P. (2021). The fashion which means buyers need to try their luck in every single purchase similar commodification of idol culture to an online game loot box. This article invokes the notion of consumer psychology with a loot-boxes-style marketing strategy practice in towards uncertainties and provide a detailed account of how a repetition of Thai idol culture and aspects of decisions after receiving an uncertainty incentive. The review result show that this consumer psychology toward kind of business yield a new effect on customer perception toward the idol product uncertainties. Humanities, Arts and there are some difficulties in this business such as human resource and Social Sciences Studies 21(2): 179-187. development and youth scarification of idol. Future studies should extent the result of this review into a quantitative research to analyze the effect of uncertainties toward consumer behavior or qualitatively study an in-dept life of idol group members. Keywords: Commodification; idol business; loot box 1. INTRODUCTION Presently, the idol business, considered a newcomer in the industry, plays the important role in an entertainment industry. This type of business originated from Japan but invaded Thailand in late 2017, becoming famous and gaining more popularity as time goes by. At this time, there are more than 10 official pop 179 The commodification of idol culture with a loot-boxes-style marketing strategy practice idol groups in Thailand entertaining happy customers namely BNK48, Sweat16!, Daisy Daisy, Fever and many more. This industry is continuing to emerge and plays an important role in entertainment for Thailand. Moreover, there are many aspects in business practice that differ from any other legacy entertainment business. Therefore, it is worth reviewing this avant-garde type of business practice in Thailand. The objective of this review article was to scrutinize the advent of the idol business in Thailand. Data collection was based upon a systematic review of related literature from practitioners as well as academics, from both inside and outside Thailand including text books, research papers, practitioner papers, academic manuscripts and relevant online sources. This article aimed to examine the meaning and background of the idol business, as well as its commodification, cultural commodities, loot-box-style marketing practice and consumer psychology towards uncertainties. 2. WHAT ARE IDOLS? Tajima (2018) described origin of the idol culture in his writing that idol culture in Japan was born in 1971, with an audition musical for a program for young talents called “A Star is Born!” in Nippon Television Network from 1971-1983 and made possible by the coming of a color television in ordinary households. This program produced many idols that were not necessarily talented singers or dancers but rather, were considered young and relatable girls. The 1970s were the beginning of the idol age right after a considerable promotion from typical popular magazines of post-war Japan such as Heibon and Myojo, boasting more than one-million readers consisting mainly of teenage boys and girls, published a wealth of information on idols. Generally, an idol was a cute, girl-next-door singers who were designed, controlled and marketed just like product (Cole and Zorach, 2009). In other words, idols were consumer products that were carefully crafted to do the job for a few years before they retire to find opportunities as professional entertainment artists on their own later on. Presently, the meaning of ‘Pop Idols’ is still questionable as it stands between ordinary people and professional entertainers. In the mass media agencies, they use the word ‘Pop Idol’ and ‘Artists’ interchangeably. However, the real main characteristic that distinguishes pop idols from professional artists is the skill set. Cahoon (1993) said that youth looks and sentimentality are the only requirements for an idol and musical and performing skill are considered as a second priority for the job (Lin and Lin, 2007). By perceiving idol as one of consumer products, there are several peculiar rule and regulation applied to pop idol group members. The most iconic one is no-dating policy. Truthfully, the reason that pop idols are prohibited from dating is a deep devotion to fans. If the fans find out that their beloved idol is dating someone, they will feel betrayed as idol does not solely dedicate to her role and fans will not support the idol and her music anymore (Galbraith, 2017). Apart from its characteristic, the work practice of idols is also far more different from legacy artists. While almost artists emphasis on producing music work or performing live concert, idols have a lot of different things to do apart from those professional entertainers do. Apart from music works, three main works that indicate the uniqueness of pop idols are handshake event, photoshoot event and online live show. The handshake event or Akushukai was the event that initiated by Japanese idol AKB48 group (Galbraith, 2017). The very first event started in December 16, 2005 and this event was held by accident and unintentionally. On that day, a power outage and facilities equipment problem occurred during the live show at AKB48 theatre located at the top floor of Don Quixote discount store in Akihabara. Concert-goers were upset as they paid to see the show. AKB48 manager decided to establish a special handshake event outside the building to compensate for cancellation of the show due to power outage. Later on, he found that this event was successful and considered as a good idea for the business and it became the norm and compulsory event for every other idol group. There are two types of handshake event which are individual handshake and group handshake. The individual handshake, for this setting, fans get approximately 8-10 seconds per ticket to spend with a specific member and they are allowed to combine tickets to spend extra accumulated time handshaking and talking to the girl. The group handshake or ‘hi-touch’, on the other hand, fans shake hands or touch hands with all members in a row at once instead of an individual member. A ticket for a handshake event always comes with the copies of singles or can be sold separately with other related idol group product. Generally, pop idols are not allowed to directly interact with fans. This includes having a conversation or taking a photograph with fans. Due to the perception that an idol was considered a type of consumer product, a photoshoot of fans and idol is considered as a product with an economical value (Van-Haecke, 2020). In order to take a photograph with their favorite idol, fans need to buy a Cheki ticket. The word Cheki is a Japanese term that stands for an instant photo taken by any type of instant cameras. Normally, a Cheki ticket, a ticket that allows you to join a photoshoot event, comes with an album or single as a complimentary product, but some idol groups sell Cheki tickets separately as a standalone product. There are 2 main types of Cheki which are 2- 180 Maneechaeye, P. shot Cheki and group shot. A 2-shot Cheki is a photograph of an idol with an individual fan club. There are 2 people in a one photoshoot (shot). Therefore, they named this type of product ‘2-shot’. Another type of photoshoot event is a group shot. Just like 2-shot but there is a group photograph of a group of idols with individual fan clubs. Most idol groups in Thailand require their members to establish an online ‘Live’ show. The show can be in various online live platforms such as Twitch or Tutu Live. This show can be anything from doing nothing but reading the viewer real-time comments the entire live to cooking a meal or playing a console game. The idol online streaming live show itself is mostly free to view. However, if viewers feel enjoyable in the online live show, they can send out ‘the gift’ to the host to thank for the enjoyment of the show. This type of gift is an in-app purchase product and viewers need to buy this virtual gift by paying the real money. An idol who hosts the online live show may receive the gift, which can be turned into real money later on in return for the good and enjoyable live show (Jones, 2016). For instance, pop idol group BNK48 has a virtual gift called ‘cookies’ up for sale online. Customers need to pay a real-world money for cookies and they can send out cookies to their favorite idol online live streaming show.